Fujii Kaze returned to the Mojave Stage on Saturday for Coachella’s second weekend with a markedly stronger performance after openly voicing frustration with his debut set the previous week.
In clips from a candid post-Weekend 1 interview with The Associated Press that surfaced online, Kaze admitted his voice had gone and described the performance as “messy”, adding that he hoped to feel “more free” the following weekend. On Saturday, the early livestream mix issues that dogged the first set were gone, his voice sounded stronger, and the atmosphere inside the Mojave tent was louder and looser from the start.
The setlist itself was unchanged, still running from ‘It’s Alright’ through to ‘Hachikō’, but the difference in delivery was obvious. With the early sound issues resolved, the performance felt more relaxed and more fluid across the full 45 minutes.
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The highlight of the set came before ‘Shinunoga E-wa’, when Kaze opened the song with a snippet of BIGBANG’s 2012 single ‘BAD BOY’, a track he has previously cited as a key influence on what would become his breakout song. Back in 2022, he shared a video of himself singing Matt Cab’s English cover of the song on Instagram. “I fell in love with this song since I heard it for the first time back in 2012”, he wrote in the caption. “You can see (hear) that inspiration in my song ‘Shinunoga E-wa’ as well”.
‘BAD BOY’ remains one of BIGBANG’s most celebrated songs, ranking at No. 8 on Billboard’s 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s list, while ‘Shinunoga E-wa’ became the song that pushed Kaze furthest beyond Japan, topping Spotify viral charts in 23 countries in 2022 and later earning a Gold certification in the US.
With BIGBANG also appearing at this year’s festival, six years after their planned 2020 debut was cancelled due to COVID-19, the brief cover caught the attention of the group’s leader G-Dragon, who reposted the live footage to his Instagram Stories, an account followed by over 25 million people.
Closing out the set, Kaze lingered on stage for a final word to the crowd. “Thank you. Thank you Coachella. Thank you beautiful people. Thank you Taemin stan”, he said, acknowledging the K-pop fans already staking out spots in the tent ahead of Taemin’s later set.
BIGBANG close out the final day of Coachella 2026 on the Outdoor Theatre stage tonight (Sunday April 19th) at 10:30pm, streaming worldwide via the official Coachella YouTube channel.
